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Restoration, Examination and Preservation

DATES February 12, 1938 through March 27, 1938
There are currently no digitized images of this exhibition. If images are needed, contact archives.research@brooklynmuseum.org.
  • February 13, 1938 Note: The exhibitions referred to will be available for press preview on the afternoon of Monday, February 14.

    On Friday afternoon, February 18, from 4:00 to 6:00 o’clock the Brooklyn Museum will open with a reception and preview for members and guests two exhibitions, "The Examination and Conservation of Works of Art" arranged by Mr. Sheldon Keck, Restorer, and Mr. John I.H. Baur, Curator of Contemporary Art; and "Child Art of the American Indian" arranged by the Education Division of the Museum. These exhibitions will be open to the public on Saturday, February 19, and will remain on view through March 27.

    Materials for the exhibition of work by Indian children have been assembled through the courtesy of the Honorable John Collier, Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

    At the preview on February 18 at 4:00 o’clock there will be a lecture by Mr. Sheldon Keck on "Scientific Examination of Works of Art and the Detection of Fraud." This is one of a series of Friday afternoon lectures being given at the Brooklyn Museum by various authorities on art.

    A series of moving pictures on Indian life and art will be run every Saturday morning throughout the period of the exhibition and will be open free to the public. The first of these, shown on Saturday morning, February 19, will include two films, "Life in an Indian Village and "Chetoga, Chief of the Ojibways."

    The committee of sponsors for this exhibition will act as hosts and hostesses at the opening. It is composed of the following patrons of the arts: Mrs. Paul Cameron Boyd, Brooklyn Girls Scouts; Honorable John Collier, Commissioner Bureau of Indian Affairs; Miss Edith M, Dabb, American Indian Councillor, National Board; Mr. Edwin Deming, Artist and Author; Mr. Don Carlos Ellis, Board of Education; Miss Phyllis Fenner, Librarian, Manhasset School; Mr. Milton J. Ferguson, Librarian, Brooklyn Public Library; Mr. Forest Grant, Director of Art; Mrs. Sidonie Matsner Gruenberg, Chlld Study Association Of America; Mr. George J. Hecht, Parent Magazine; Dr. Alice Koliher, Commission on Human Relations; Mrs. Zara B. Kimmy, Supervisor of Drawing, State Education Department; Miss Edith L. Nichols, Assistant Director of Art; Miss Nolen, Story Parade; Miss Ethel M. Orr, Elementary School Supervisor, Montclair; Miss Jacqueline Overton, Children’s Library, Robert Bacon Memorial; Dr. Beryl Parker, Associate Professor of Elementary Education, N. Y. University; Mr. Vincent A. Roy, Supervisor of Teacher Training, Pratt Institute, Mrs. Jacob Schechtor, United Parents Association of N.Y.C. Inc.; Miss Ethel L. Smith, Assistant Director of Elementary Education, Trenton; Mr. Herbert Joseph Spinden, Curator of Primitive Art, Brooklyn Museum, Mr. Vinal H. Tibbetts, Superintendent of Schools, Manhasset; and Mr. F. R. Wegner, Superintendent of Schools, Roslyn.

    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 01-02_1938, 027-8.
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  • February 20, 1938 There is a vast difference between the work of the old "restorer" of paintings, which brought the very word restoration into disrepute, and the methods now practiced in the best equipped museum laboratories, such as that of the Brooklyn Museum, for the conservation and restoration of works of art, the detection of fraud and similar tasks. In the bad old days, paintings were cleaned by a process often so ruthless as to destroy the painted surface, and then they were repainted in an effort to reproduce as closely as possible the effects of the original. This repainting covered up much or all of that was left of the original painting so that the original disappeared beneath the cleaning and restoring. Often the restorer deliberately altered the painting, introducing elements that did not exist in the original or changing the character of elements which did exist. The purpose of such changes is some times difficult to understand. Sometimes the change is simply due to lack of skill on the part of the artist who did the repainting. Sometimes it is a mere covering up of a part of the original that had been injured. Sometimes it is an attempt to improve upon the old master, that is an effort to modernize his work, and sometimes, of course, it is an attempt to give an old painting by an unknown hand the characteristics of the work of a known master.

    The modern restorer has several distinct tasks. He must first examine a painting to determine its exact condition before he touches it at all, and in this examination he calls to the aid of his own expert eyes, the eyes of science, such as the camera, the microscope, the ultra violet light, infra red light, and X Ray, the hypodermic needle with which to take a minute sample of paint and the chemical apparatus and reagents with which to analyze that sample. His examination reveals the nature of the support behind the painting, wood panel, gesso, or canvas, for instance; the condition of that support, whether in need of repair or complete replacement; the nature of the several layers of paint, possibly old painting beneath modern repainting; the nature of the superficial layers of old varnish and dirt; the injuries to the paint such as bubbles, cracks, missing fragments and so forth.

    Having determined exactly the state of the picture, his first task may be to transfer the layers of paint from a rotten canvas to a new one. He will be obliged to clean the surface of the paint of old varnish and dirt, using solvents and processes of work which will remove the dirt and varnish only and will not destroy the surface. He may also have to remove paint previously applied in an effort at restoration. Sometimes he finds two paintings one over the other and has the delicate task of separating the paint layers and preserving both. He has also to fasten to the now support bits of paint that were cracked and loose. Sometimes an entire painting is a picture puzzle of such cracked fragments. When parts of the paint are missing, he has to paint in those missing parts, but in doing so he is careful to use a sort of pigment that can be easily removed and he is likely to handle the repair painting in such a way that it can be easily detected on close examination, so that there is no mistake about what part of the painting is really the original and what is repair and he is especially careful not to cover up original painting with repainting. His object is to preserve as much of the original as is there to be preserved. Finally he must protect the whole by a coat of transparent varnish of a sort that can easily be washed off by the use of proper solvents without injury to the painting beneath. Thus the painting is given a transparent protective surface that can easily be cleaned, removed and replaced when necessary.

    The exhibition of the Preservation and Restoration of Works of Art shown at the Brooklyn Museum from February 19th through March 27th, illustrates various stages in all these processes as well as the equipment used. Material has been drawn from the Museum collections and borrowed from the Fogg Museum of Harvard University and from the Metropolitan Museum.


    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 01-02_1938, 031-2.
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  • February 19, 1938 The Brooklyn Museum opened two exhibitions yesterday afternoon, February 18, with a reception and preview for members and guest: an exhibition of the "The Examination and Conservation of Works of Art" and an exhibition of "Child Art of the American Indian." Members of the Board of Trustees, Museum Staff and patrons of the Indian Exhibition were hosts. The list of patrons is enclosed herewith.

    Among those present were:

    Mr. Charles W. Geier
    Mrs. Laurance P. Roberts
    Mrs. Philip N. Youtz
    Mrs. Sheldon Keck
    Mrs. Ralph Root
    Miss Phyllis Fenner
    Miss Etchel Swantees
    Miss Mary B. Carberry
    Miss Florence Levy
    Mrs. Edward C. Blum
    Mrs. Grant H. Code
    Mr. Edward C. Blum
    Mr. adn Mrs. H. L. Hildebrant
    Mr. J. Garnett
    Miss Harriet B. Scott
    Miss Helen S. Russell
    Mrs. mary Bently Selbert
    Mrs. Edith Dobb
    Mrs. Briggs
    Miss Barbasa Bolan
    Mrs. Norby
    Mrs. F. R. Schepmoes
    Miss Marian Warner
    Mr. John A. Brave
    Professor Zucker
    Mrs. Albert M. Kohn
    Mrs. Eugene W. Stern
    Miss Mazie Emerson
    Mrs. H. P. Daniels
    Miss Mathilda Brownell
    Mrs. Edith Bori
    Mrs. William Lamd
    Mr. Robert I. Peters
    Mr. and Mrs. Fred R. Keck
    Dr. and Mrs. Andrew C. Ritchie
    Mrs. William Llyod Garrison
    Mrs. Paker

    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 01-02_1938, 033.
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  • February 24, 1938 On Friday afternoon, February 25th, at 4:00 o’clock, at the Brooklyn Museum, there will be a lecture by Mr. Sheldon Keck on "The Conservation of Works of Art." Mr. Keck is the Restorer at the Brooklyn Museum.

    This is the second of two lectures given by Mr. Keck in correlation with the exhibition "Examination and Conservation of Works of Art" now on view at the Brooklyn Museum.

    This is one of a series of Friday afternoon lectures being given at the Brooklyn Museum by various authorities of art.


    Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1937 - 1939. 01-02_1938, 034.
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